long ,boring details ofabuse of insane people

                          Doctors For Equal Rights For Physical And Mental Pain

        8409 Carlynn Dr. Bethesda, MD 20817               alensalerian@gmail.com

                                           dralensalerian.blogspot.com 
       Founding members Siobhan Reynolds Kevin Byers Vanessa Mullin Alen J Salerian

Solange MacArthur

Signature Traits Of Systematic Discrimination Against People With Brain Dysfunction.

   Discrimination against people with mental illness have lessened  in the last century.  At Bedlam in London mentally ill were chained in 1843. Weekend visitors paid a fee for special tours of caged humans.

  Today our challenge is more complex .: The silent power of diverse influences generating  a  hostile  environment for people with brain disorders.

  We live with an invisible paradox: A modern Prince Dracula  tormenting victims of  imperfect brains. Dracula is empowered by 4 influences.

1     Silent Discrimination.

2     Pejorative terms by AMA APA DOJ.

3     Misinformation by CDC and DEA

4     Misinformation by media.

Silent discrimination

   Millions of people with mental or physical pain must travel further to find a doctor. They live in constant fear that their doctor could be imprisoned ( 20,000 doctors in the last 10 years have been imprisoned). They travel further to find a pharmacy and wait longer to get medication. They must attend medically unnecessary daily methadone clinics.  They must also endure job discrimination (no job with security clearance).

Personal Observations:

Pejorative terms by AMA APA DOJ

     Two nationally known experts testified in the administrative hearings Washington DC  Board of medicine VS  Salerian in the that the in 2013.

     I cringed inside when I heard “ Junkies” the term ,the first expert used to refer to my patients with addiction. Later I confronted the expert about his ethics. I received  a verbal reprimand from the chairwoman.

      The same expert said “it has been a long time since medical school to remember  amygdala or  hypothalamus”.

    His astonishing ignorance was also overlooked .

   The second expert in public  had called the former mayor of Washington DC” a scumbag “ because of his problems with addiction. What else?  My wife had been his patient. Neither his ethics nor his prejudicial language seemed relevant.

        There are other forces that promote  our deep seated negative attitudes toward people with mental illness.

     DSM the Bible of modern psychiatry has diagnostic terms such as borderline personality.

      Prosecutors nationwide refer to pain doctors as Dr. Pill Mill . Many scholarly discussions about addiction or pain have often been contaminated with  offensive language. The words addicts or alcoholics nowadays  routinely demonize  any human with problems of  addiction.

   Many treatment programs such as AA -NA   are based on the principle that for successful recovery every individual must first face the truth that he is an alcoholic or an addict. And loudly declare it to the world.

Archaic? Unscientific? Derogatory for sure.

 Misinformation by CDC and DEA

     For some time CDC has been disseminating a false alarm : An epidemic of prescription pain medication  deaths.

  CDC reports have often been shadowed by DEA  and another false alarm of  a heroin epidemic. Collectively the message is clear; that we Americans have been self-destructive by our reliance on narcotics whether it's for pleasure or pain relief.

    The scientific truth is somewhat different.

   Sadly it has has been buried under mass misinformation. According to the Institute of medicine110 million people suffer from chronic pain and many of them may benefit from pain relief by opiates – narcotics. In Canada and Europe intramuscular heroine is first choice to treat people with addictions. There is also evidence that chronic pain causes premature aging and death by accelerating brain degeneration.

  CDC statistics fail to substantiate any evidence of a serious threat to Americans from either prescription pain medications or heroin.

  To explain this extraordinarily provocative suggestion we need time and energy to scrutinize the statistical findings from CDC. Here comes the problem. Many of us  do not have enough time or knowledge  .  Hence we take the word of our societal icons. New York Times Washington Post CNN or New England Journal of Medicine.

 CDC  Statistics simplified:

   Per hundred thousand population 2 people die of heroin od , 3.5 people die of prescription pain medication od , five people die of drowning ,  5 .5 people die of motorcycle accidents, 12 people die of suicide, 50 people die of complications of chronic pain, depression and brain disorders. These are CDCs statistics simplified. Let us remember that most drug addictions are complications of untreated psychiatric disorders and furthermore the 3.5  deaths are exaggerated because they include over-the-counter medications and some other statistical errors that exaggerate the number of deaths from methadone (an important measure, blood concentration of methadone is routinely dismissed in most methadone related fatalities).

 Science FDA and DEA

    Science says  in general prescription pain medications( opiates) including methadone and heroin do not cause neurodegeneration. In fact they are neuroprotective and slow down premature death from brain damage .

     In Canada and Europe intramuscular heroin is used as  standard treatment for addictive disorders.

       In America we have been confusing the dangers of certain psychotropics _cocaine, alcohol tobacco  LSD PCP_with potential harm from opiates.

   Cocaine alcohol, tobacco , LSD  and PCP do cause cellular damage even in small amounts. This is absolutely untrue for  endorphins or endorphin like substances such as morphine, methadone, heroin or medications known as narcotics.    

       Furthermore the new long-acting formulations of prescription pain medications make it practically impossible for them to be abusable simply because they cannot chemically induce euphoria. They may help withdrawal symptoms but they don't  trigger euphoric – pleasurable sensations.

     Can prescription pain medications or heroin kill? Of course if you take an overdose. But this is also true for insulin or any antidepressant. How come we don't classify them as controlled substances? Ignorance and dogma.

        Our current FDA and DEA guidelines are archaic ,misleading and harmful.

We should change them now.

Do we have the courage to do it?

Misinformation by Media and New England Journal of Medicine.

   Problem solving is not a contest. All problems small or large   must be  addressed effectively. But what if CDC were primarily interested in problem solving for Irish-Americans and dismissive of any health threats to African-Americans.

  When it comes to mental illness the CDC rules suddenly change. The statistics I presented above indicate that a relatively minor threat to national health has been broadcasted as ”As evil as the former Soviet empire” . Infinite finances have been invested to combat  the phantom enemy. This kind of mass delusion is only possible by fooling the media and our intellectual icons.

 Is that  possible? The statistics suggest our icons  have fallen asleep .

Summary: Pain Brain and Science

Salerian Hypotheses Of Pain

Sense of pain represents input from many senses including sound heat cold light touch smell etc. Pain is a brain message of bad news about a body part.

Statistics: pain and depression

Kill 100.000 Americans every year

116 million Americans with chronic pain (Institute of medicine report June 2012)

Silent complications of pain and depression

worsening pain and depression

brain atrophy

premature aging

premature dementia

premature death

Opiates (endorphins) pain and depression

endorphins regulate pain and mood.

opiates are neuroprotective.

opiates are not neurotoxic like cocaine PCP LSD alcohol tobacco.

long acting opiates methadone, intramuscular heroin, OxyContin, Opana ER are not abusable  .

False alarm by CDC and DEA

There is no  scientific evidence of an epidemic of prescription pain medication overdose deaths. 2  heroine deaths per hundred thousand population are insignificant versus 5 deaths from drowning or 5 .5 deaths from motorcycle accidents and 12 from suicide.

CONCLUSION:

During the past century we have managed to lessen  discrimination against people with brain disorders. Our job is incomplete. We must update our laws and regulations to catch up with science.